Cebu City, Philippines—A quadruple-header ushers in the brand new season of the Partner’s Cup 2019 with the University of San Jose-Recoletos (USJ-R) Jaguars taking on the Southwestern University (SWU)-Phinma Cobras in the college division on Saturday, June 8, 2019, at the Cebu Coliseum.
Opening the festivities will be the debuting University of Cebu-Lapu Lapu and Mandaue (UCLM) when it takes on the USJ-R Baby Jaguars in the high school division at 12:30 p.m.
This will be followed by the tiff between ARQ Builders-University of the Visayas (UV) Baby Lancers and the Cebu Elite-University of San Carlos (USC) Baby Warriors.
In the college division, the University of Southern Philippines Foundation (USPF) Panthers will do battle with the Cebu Landmasters-USC Warriors.
USJ-R will be fielding in a team virtually stripped of veterans save for wingmen Tricky Peromingan and Miguel Gastador, who will be tasked with carrying the load for last year’s Cesafi runners-up.
SWU-Phinma, on the other hand, will still have Cesafi All Stars Shaquille Imperial and Red Cachuela to lean on this season.
The other teams competing in the college division are the Tough Gear-Cebu Institute of Technology-University (CIT-U), Joemang Surplus-University of Cebu (UC), and the three-time defending Cesafi champions, ARQ Builders-UV Green Lancers.
Completing the high school field are the Cebu Landmasters-SHS-Ateneo de Cebu, OCCCI-CIT-U Wildkittens, Hotel Fortuna-UC Baby Webmasters, USPF, and the Tough Gear-SWU Baby Cobras.
Teams in the college division will play a double round-robin while high school squads will play in a single round-robin.
The top four finishers will advance to the semifinal round where the top two will enjoy a twice-to-beat advantage over the lower seeds. The winners will advance to a best-of-three finals showdown. /bmjo